1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for loading a tray of an optical disc drive, and more particularly, to an apparatus for loading a tray of an optical disc drive which may be selectively applicable to a cartridge tray on which a disc cartridge is mounted or a disc tray on which a disc is placed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Optical disc drives record/read data on/from rotating discs by radiating laser beams on recording surfaces of discs that are rotating. Such optical disc drives generally include an apparatus for loading and unloading trays on which discs or cartridges are accommodated.
Hereinafter, a tray on which a cartridge accommodates a disc is referred to as a first tray and a tray on which a disc is placed is referred to as a second tray.
FIG. 1A is an exploded perspective view of a conventional optical disc drive and FIG. 1B is a cross-sectional view taken along line A–A′ of FIG. 1A. As shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, the conventional optical disc drive includes a main frame 100, a first tray 110, a deck 120, and an upper frame 130.
The main frame 100 has first rails 140 which guide the first tray 110 so that the first tray 110 slides into or out of the main frame 100. The first rails 140 protrude inside right and left sidewalls 101 of the main frame 100 so as to contact bottom surfaces 112 of right and left sidewalls 111 of the first tray 110. The main frame 100 includes a loading motor 150 which supplies power necessary for sliding the first tray 110. A first pulley 151 is mounted on a shaft of the loading motor 150 and the rotating power is transmitted to a second pulley 153 having a gear via a belt 152, and then to the pinion gear 160 via an idle gear 154.
A cartridge installing surface 114 on which a cartridge 170 is mounted is formed on the upper surface of the first tray 110 and a rack gear 115 engaging a pinion gear 160 is placed on the lower surface of the first tray 110.
The deck 120 includes a spindle motor 121 which rotates a disc 171 and an optical pickup unit 122 which accesses the disc 171 by sliding in a radial direction of the disc 171. A hub 123, on which the lower surface of the disc 171 is placed when loading the disc 171, is mounted to a shaft of the spindle motor 121. The deck 120 is installed in the main frame 100. The deck 120 rises toward the lower surface of the disc 171 when loading the disc 171 while the deck 120 descends when unloading the disc 171 due to the operation of a cam (not shown) which is driven by the loading motor 150.
The upper frame 130 includes a shutter lever 131 which opens a shutter (not shown) installed in the cartridge 170, a damper 132 which clamps the disc 171 along with the hub 123, and cartridge guides 133 which elastically push the upper surface of the cartridge 170.
FIG. 1C is a plan view of the optical disc drive shown in FIG. 1A. The operation of loading a tray will now be described with reference to FIGS. 1A through 1C. The cartridge 170 is mounted on the cartridge-installing surface 114 of the first tray 110 and the pinion gear 160 actuated by the loading motor 150 which rotates the pinion gear 160. The rotating power of the pinion gear 160 is transmitted to the rack gear 115 of the first tray 110, and thus the first tray 110 starts sliding into the main frame 100.
The lower surfaces 112 of the right and left sidewalls 111 of the first tray 110 contact the upper surfaces 141 of the first rails 140 and the upper surfaces 113 of the right and left sidewalls of the first tray 110 contact the lower surface of the upper frame 130. Thus, the first tray 110 is guided to slide into the main frame 100. The upper surface of the cartridge 170 mounted on the first tray 110 contacts the cartridge guides 133 in the upper frame 130 so that the first tray 110 slides into the main frame 100 without moving up and down.
After the first tray 110 slides to some extent, the shutter (not shown) in the cartridge 170 starts contacting the shutter lever 131 in the upper frame 130. As the first tray 110 continues to slide, the shutter lever 131 completely opens the shutter. Here, the deck 120 ascends due to the operation of the cam (not shown) toward the first tray 110, and thus the spindle motor 121 approaches the disc 171 and the camper 132 in the upper frame 130 descends toward the disc 171. Thus, the lower surface of the disc 171 contacts the hub 123 on the spindle motor 121 and the upper surface of the disc 171 contacts the damper 132 so that the disc 171 is clamped. As a result, in the above-described configuration, it is possible to load the first tray 110 accommodating the cartridge 170 into the main frame 100 and also to unload the first tray 110 out of the main frame 100 by performing the above-described steps in inverse order.
As shown in FIG. 2A, a second tray 200 accommodates the disc 171 and the first tray 110 accommodates the cartridge 170, which can be selectively loaded into the optical disc drive having the above-described structure. Thus, two kinds of optical disc drives can be easily manufactured.
FIG. 2A is a perspective view of the second tray 200 and FIG. 2B is a cross-sectional view of the second tray 200 which is loaded into the optical disc drive shown in FIG. 1A. As shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, the second tray 200 includes a disc placing surface 211 on which the disc 171 is placed, ribs 220 which are formed on right and left sidewalls of the second tray in a sliding direction, and a rack gear 230. The second tray 200 starts sliding when the pinion gear 160 driven by the loading motor 150 drives the rack gear 230. Here, upper surfaces 221 and lower surfaces 222 of the ribs 220 have to be guided.
If the second tray 200 is installed in the optical disc drive instead of the first tray 110, the upper surfaces 141 of the first rails 140 have to contact the lower surfaces 222 of the ribs 220 of the second tray 200 and the lower surface of the upper frame 130 has to contact the upper surfaces 221 of the ribs 220 so as to guide the sliding of the second tray 200.
However, the first tray 110 has to accommodate the cartridge 170 with the disc 171 to protect the disc 171 from dust or the like. Thus, a width W1 of the first tray 110 is wider than a width W2 of the second tray 200 accommodating the disc 171 and a thickness T1 of the first tray 110 is also thicker than a thickness T2 of the second tray 200. Therefore, as described above, if the second tray 200 is loaded in the optical disc drive, the upper and lower surfaces 221 and 222 of the ribs 220 fail to contact the upper surfaces 141 of the first rails 140 and the lower surface of the upper frame 130. Thus, when the second tray 200 is sliding, the second tray 200 moves up and down. If second rails (not shown) capable of guiding the ribs 220 of the second tray 200 are formed with the first rails 140 in the main frame 100, the first tray 110 interferes with the second rails (not shown) when installing the first tray 110 having greater width and thickness than the second tray 200. Thus, the first tray 110 cannot be loaded.
As a result, when the first tray 110 and the second tray 200 are used, a tray loading apparatus including the main frame 100 has to be additionally manufactured, thereby increasing the cost of the tray loading apparatus.